The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3 by Paula Lester (best ereader for comics .txt) 📗

terrible. I hope it's for a fun reason." Gloria leaned on the doorjamb of her new office, appraising Tessa's condition with eyes decorated in rainbow eyeshadow. "How much did you have to drink last night?"

Tessa yawned again, not bothering to cover her mouth. "I didn't drink anything. I just didn't sleep well—or maybe not at all." She met her new boss’s gaze.

A wrinkle appeared between Gloria's finely shaped eyebrows. "Wow, you really don't look good. Come on in here.”

Once Tessa was inside the office with the door closed behind her, Gloria ordered, "Spill."

Tessa plummeted into a chair and then slumped down low enough that she could lean her head back on it. "Silas is free—they let him go because they had someone confess to Mr. Green's murder."

Gloria lowered herself much more gracefully into her own chair and then leaned forward. "That sounds like good news to me! Who confessed?”

"Mr. Green's son-in-law, Nathaniel. There was an emergency reap night—Jake got there before I did, but he said Nathaniel was already dead. There was a suicide note on the desk in front of him, and it said he had killed Artemis."

Gloria leaned back and slapped her thighs. “That’s great! Wait, why don’t you look like you think it’s great news?”

"Well, for one thing, Silas is still mad at me for not telling the truth initially about being a reaper." Tessa raised her hand to keep Gloria from replying. "But mainly, the whole thing with Nathaniel and Mr. Green doesn't sit right with me."

"What do you mean? The guy killed his father-in-law, felt tremendous guilt, and committed suicide. Makes sense to me. I’ve seen a dozen of those true crime shows that end just like this."

"There's just something . . . I don't know. Something isn't right."

"Well, first things first—I wish you and Silas would make up already. I was hoping we could go on a double date this weekend."

Tessa shook her head. “He's super mad at me. He let me know in no uncertain terms that we’re over before we really even got started. He also told me I had to get Pepper out of the apartment. So, she’s at my mom’s—who, by the way, is moving to Chicago. So, yeah, I don’t think a double date this weekend is going to happen."

“Not with an attitude like that, it isn't." At Tessa’s glare, Gloria tipped her head. ""Okay, I’m not saying all that stuff isn’t a lot to deal with,” Gloria admitted. “But let’s start with the Silas thing. You like him, don’t you?"

Tessa scrubbed a hand over her face, trying to encourage her eyes to feel more awake. "Of course I do. But the truth is that he's right. I did lie to him. He has no reason to trust me now, and I don't know how to make that up to him—how to prove that I'm not normally a liar."

"That's easy. Just have a heart-to-heart with him and explain that you didn't really want to lie to him. In fact, it was really hard for you to do it, but you thought you were supposed to. Now that you know you don't have to, everything will be A-OK."

Tessa lifted her shoulder and then let it drop back down again, which wasn't hard because she still felt the heaviness of exhaustion throughout her whole body. "Maybe. I'll think about it. But what about Mr. Green and Nathaniel?"

Gloria pulled out a handheld mirror from a desk drawer, popped it open, and started patting at her hair. "What about them? It's a police matter now. Silas has been let go, so it's really none of your concern anymore."

"Seriously? But if Nathaniel didn't kill Mr. Green—and I really don't think he did, even though I can’t put my finger on why—then there's still a killer running around Mist River. Doesn't that affect us all?"

Gloria snapped the mirror shut and put it away. "We can't get involved in every suspicious thing that happens around here," she said firmly, in her newly developed boss-tone. "Our job is to escort souls across the veil, not to figure out why people died in the first place. You know our taxes pay the police force for that.”

Tessa didn't answer. She just stared at her friend impassively.

Gloria blinked a few times. "I know that look. It's the same one you had in Miami. My impeccable, irrefutable logic isn't going to make a difference because you're not going to let that go, are you?"

"Probably not." Tessa's lips twitched into a smirk. "Sorry. It’s my nature. I was always a curious kid."

"You're not one bit sorry. And I'm your boss now, so you should have more respect for my opinion."

Tessa put a sweet look on her face and fluttered her eyelashes. "I do respect you. I just don't think Mr. Green's killer should go free. Especially when it's likely that he also killed Nathaniel. Who's next?"

“You, if you aren’t careful,” Gloria shot back.

Tessa stared back at Gloria in silence for a moment, shocked.

Finally, her boss leaned forward and touched something sitting on her messy desk. Tessa realized it was a blank badge like the one Gloria had given her.

“I’m not giving up on this,” Tessa said firmly.

"Well, if that's the case, you have everything you need to get to the bottom of it. But you're on your own. I don't want to know any more about it. Capisce?"

Tessa smiled slowly and straightened in her chair. She suddenly felt lighter than she had, the fatigue seeming to scatter to the edges of her mind. Her thoughts sharpened. "Capisce," she repeated.

Chapter 16

TESSA LEFT GLORIA'S office and headed out to Linda, chewing over her next move. She knew exactly what it was—the reading of Mr. Green’s will.

She'd seen the letter on Nathaniel's desk and made note of the date and time, which was in less than an hour at the Green estate. She certainly knew her way there by now. What she didn't know yet was how to get in so